John 5:25-28

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Death is the most jarring and unsettling thing in this life. Whether it’s the death of a childhood friend or the death of a family member, a father, mother, brother, sister, son or daughter, a gut punch doesn’t even begin to describe it. It’s more like the very definition of sorrow. When that happens, memories of all the times that you shared with them come flooding back into your mind. There’s a hollowness when you realize that expectations you had for the future are gone and taken away. Those things won’t happen.

I think even those who suppose that death is just a natural part of life, they still feel that anguish and pain associated with that loss. Death is unsettling because it is unnatural. It’s not supposed to happen. Death is a terrible result of the fall into sin. It’s what happens when mankind turns away from God. God did not want man to sin. That’s why he instructs us not to. He instructed Adam and Eve not to. But they were deceived, and they took from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And now they know evil. We know evil, and we know death, which is a result of it. The whole world was cursed in the fall into sin, and now people die. There are diseases, there are tragedies, and the world is dying. It almost seems like death wins. It seems like death gets the final say. But that is not the case. Scripture reassures us of this. In John chapter five, verse 25 through 28.

Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice (John 5:25-28)

Death doesn’t get the final say. Jesus does. Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, came into this world specifically to conquer death. He took on our flesh. He took on our sin. He took on the evil world, and he won. He went to the grave on our behalf. But he did not stay there. He went through the grave and he rose from the dead. He’s now seated at the right hand of the Father. So as Christians, we likewise will go through the grave to eternal life. Death no longer has to be as unsettling. There is still pain because there’s a separation and a loss. But we have the knowledge that Jesus Christ has the victory over death. Death didn’t win when it took your loved one. Very truly, I tell you, there is coming a time when they will hear the voice of Jesus and come out of the grave.

Jesus has life in himself and therefore all believers have life in him when they believe in him. He is calling us now to life in him through our baptisms and through the Word of God. And at the end of time he will raise up all of the dead. His resurrection is a glorious proclamation of victory over death to us. The Easter Hymn 346 in the Evangelical Lutheran Hymnal says it this way.

Death is dead, the true Life liveth!
O’re the portals of the grave
Life’s great Sun, bright-shining giveth
Light our darkened souls to save:
Christ arisen bursts our prison;
See his triumph-banners wave.

John 11:47-48, 50

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It’s interesting to think about how often God uses his enemies as pawns to accomplish his own plans. Let’s think about the high priest Caiaphas, for example. He was no friend or follower of Jesus of Nazareth, and yet God used him to proclaim a gospel filled prophecy about Christ. Let’s set the stage.

Jesus had just raised Lazarus from the dead, and a number of people saw that miracle. And they went to the chief priests and the Pharisees, and they told them about it. So they quickly gathered together a council to decide what to do about Jesus. John 11 verse 47 tells us this. It says,

Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, “What shall we do? For this Man works many signs. If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation.” (John 11:47-48)

It is then where Caiaphas states, what John tells us is a prophecy about Christ. He says,

“It is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish.” (John 11:50)

You can almost envision this as a mafia hit, where the kingpin makes it explicitly clear who the target is, and that he is not to survive. We need to kill Jesus so that we don’t die. Caiaphas couldn’t have understood the full truth of what he was saying at that moment. He only was thinking in immediate political terms. And yet God had the whole world and world history in view with this statement. One man for the people. You see, it’s not just Caiaphas and the chief priests who plot and maneuver for power, but we all jealously scheme to take advantage of situations for our own benefit. Our sinful nature looks at those who are doing well, and especially if there’s prestige to be gained, we want to bring them down to benefit ourselves. It’s easy to hate the best just because they’re the best. We all sin in these ways and are in need of a Savior from sin.

Now, I don’t think Caiaphas could have had the ritual of the scapegoat in mind during this conversation. And yet that’s exactly what is going on here. On Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the high priest was to bring two goats to the temple and pray over one, symbolically placing the sins of the people on that goat who was designated for slaughter. And then the other goat was to be set free and released. This is a depiction of what Jesus is for us. He is the Lamb of God who goes uncomplaining forth to the cross with our sins placed on him. He is the full atoning sacrifice for our sins, who sets us right in the eyes of God. So in the end, Caiaphas was viewing Jesus death to secure his political position, and God was using this event to provide hope and salvation for all mankind.

So today we are left with the prophetic words of Caiaphas as comfort. It’s expedient for us that one man, Jesus Christ, laid down his life to save the people.

Romans 5:18-19

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Batman in A Dark Knight Rises, climbs 200ft to the top of the Manhattan Bridge, and they film him up there at sunset. It’s a pretty cool shot. If I were to ask you, who was the person who did that? You might guess, well, it was Christian Bale the lead actor in the film. The guy who played Batman, right? That would have been my guess anyway. But that’s wrong. It wasn’t him, it was the same guy who jumped about 24ft from one balcony to another in the middle of the night for the bond movie, A Quantum of Solace. And if you watch that film, it looks a lot like it’s Daniel Craig, the main actor in the film. But it’s not him. It was a guy by the name of Bobby Hanton. I didn’t even know his name. I had to look it up. He’s a stunt double.

Now stunt doubles, they do all of the risky acts that the main actor can’t do, and then the actor gets all of the credit. I want you to keep that in mind as I read Romans five verses 18 through 19, where it says this.

Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:18-19 NKJV)

So Adam in the Garden of Eden was the first man whose act of disobedience brought sin into the world, and we all followed suit. So we’re not only in a sinful world where sin is polluting and corrupting the environment around us, but by dint of being born from sinful parents. We are sinful by nature. It’s a part of us. And we fight this every day of our lives. We fail at things. We miserably hurt the people in our lives. We hurt our loved ones, and our loved ones hurt us. It’s like a negative spiral of sin, hate and jealousy and revenge. We are unable to present ourselves as righteous before God because of that.

God knowing this, he lovingly and mercifully provides us a Savior, a stunt double, as it were. Someone who can accomplish the act that we can’t. Jesus Christ is the man whose act of obedience accomplishes righteousness before God. He was incarnate by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, a sinless man, and his his perfect act of obedience to God’s law in his perfect life. And then his death that paid the penalty for our sin that we deserved. He was our substitute in that. That is what accomplished salvation for us.

So just like the actor who doesn’t do any of the harrowing feats, he gets the credit for what the stunt guy did. Just like that, we are credited with Christ’s righteousness. We wear his white robes of righteousness, his garments. It’s this act, this gift of love that God gives us that enables us to love both God and one another, and we turn away from sin. We don’t do this perfectly in this life, but we turn away from sin, loving one another because he has accomplished our salvation. Thanks be to God.

Joshua 1:9

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Are you for touchdown celebrations or against them? I could go either way myself, but I find it’s a fascinating conversation to have because some people love them and some people absolutely hate them.

Just for some background, they used to be penalized in the NFL. Up until 2017, they released those penalties, now, every time someone scores a touchdown, it’s like a big spectacle, a big celebration, and you never know what they’re going to do. And I think the reason people hate them is because they seem to be an over expression of pride. And on the other hand, when you score, when you’re triumphant, it seems fitting to have some sort of celebration. So at what point does a confidence celebration go too far into pride?

So what we’re talking about is the difference between confidence and pride. And there are two different things there. You can tell because they have two different opposites. The opposite of pride is humility, and the opposite of confidence would be fear. This is an important distinction to make because Scripture warns us about being too prideful. And then in some verses it tells us to be strong, courageous, and without fear. One of my favorite Bible passages, for example, is Joshua one verse nine, where it says,

Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

So we’re instructed to be confident. We’re instructed to be courageous and without fear. As Christians, God doesn’t want us to live our lives in fear of everything we undertake. We can do it with the knowledge that he is with us. Big things, small things, even our worst enemies. We don’t have to be afraid of them because God doesn’t want us to live in fear. But we have to be careful here because we can be too prideful. When you’re good at something. It can go to your head. And I think there’s two things to look out for, your motives and where you’re placing the credit. When we’re motivated just to serve ourselves and not use our abilities to help others, then that bleeds into pride really quickly. If we’re doing the things just to get the praise of other people. And so that people recognize you as the best, then that’s prideful. And the other one is we lose sight completely of where to properly place the credit.

Like I said, it’s awesome to be gifted at something. But why do we say it like that? Gifted? Because the proper understanding is that God has enabled you to do the things that you’re able to do. He’s placed you in this life and given you your body, your mind and soul and your members. And he preserves you. And so the proper credit for all the things that you’re able to do is to give it to God. And like Joshua one nine says, it gives us the source of our strength. The Lord your God is with you wherever you go. He is the one fighting for you. It’s his ability that your confidence is in and not your own.

How awesome is that? That Jesus Christ, the Lord of the universe, is fighting for you. He’s the true, humble servant of all. He, in perfect humility became a man, walked among us, courageously took on the sins of all mankind, and died on the cross for your sins and my sins. And then he triumphantly picks up his life again, and raises to the right hand of the father, and he gives this victory to us. He’s conquered the sins of pride that we have. He has totally conquered them and then given us that victory. And this is the one who is fighting for you.

So you have absolutely nothing to fear. We can live our lives courageously, confident in Christ without fear. Praise be to God for that.